Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Fancy a painting holiday in the Scottish highlands?

I am often asked by Art groups to give slide shows from my expeditions and to talk about my painting career. I enjoy doing this and have started giving personal tuition to Artists aswell. I've had very positive feedback and recently began to wonder if I should hold an Art class for a weekend of painting tuition in a beautiful location somewhere.

My imagination got the better of me as I imagined taking a group of painters to my favourite places in Africa or Nepal ....or maybe Yosemite national park? I thought about it all for a while and decided I'd better pick somewhere nearer to home to begin with and of course it had to be my beloved Scotland.

I've been sailing and trekking my way around the highlands my whole life so I'm pretty much an expert on where to go, and so there I was last week making out a wishlist of hotels and venues to approach when the most amazing coincidence occured! I received an email from the Dundonnell Hotel at Little Loch Broom asking if I would consider holding a class for a paintingholiday in the highlands!

It's a beautiful Hotel in a magnificent location - perfect! What we have in mind is an intimate group of people (12 maximum ) for a weekend at the hotel which would include dinner bed and breakfast where I would hold painting classes, give talks and personal one to one tuition for the weekend including (Weather permitting) day trips for painting, sketching and photography in the beautiful highlands around Torridon and the lovely Scottish coastline with its bird and sealife.

It is envisaged that the whole weekend ( Frday & saturday night, departing sunday afternoon ) would cost just £299 per person.

The Dundonnell Hotel is run by Patricia Stevens and Robert Leggat. Wester Ross and the Northern Highlands are connected by the A82 and the main A9 trunk road to Perth, Stirling, Glasgow , Edinburgh and the motorway networks of the south. Inter city rail services and regular scheduled jet flights to Inverness have also brought the area closer to the rest of the country. Car hire is available at the airport and in Inverness.

Transfers from Inverness by car, luxury coach or self drive can be arranged to suit your needs.

From Inverness, head west towards Ullapool and follow the A835. At Braemore junction take the A832 for Gairloch until you reach Dundonnell.

For more information on the hotel please take a look at their website @ www.dundonnellhotel.com

If you think you might be interested in a painting weekend please get in touch with me @ ericwilson1@btinternet.com or contact the hotel directly. At the moment we are hoping to make it the first weekend in november but it all depends upon the level of interest.